Brewed Fresh Daily

Although Boston�s gleaming new $800 million convention center is set to open in a few months, so far it has booked only a handful of conventions. So dire is the facility�s outlook that it will need a $12�15 million annual public subsidy in its first few years of operation and may not reach its full booking potential for a decade, say Boston officials. Even that may be too optimistic, judging by what�s going on in Baltimore. There, a vastly expanded convention center that reopened in 1997 is finding it so hard to lure business that city officials are now searching for ways to make the facility more attractive, including spending millions in public money to build a subsidized hotel next door.